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Old ballparks may disappear, but memories remain
As a child, Cincinnati Reds fan Courtney Rossmann would sit in his 75-cent seat in the Crosley Field outfield section and dream of standing on home plate. His dream came true — sort of. Rossmann is a vice president at Phillips Supply Co., which sells janitorial supplies, industrial chemicals and equipment ... at the location of Crosley Field.
"Stand at home plate now, and you look right into our conference room," Rossmann says. "If I went out to my old seat, I would get hit by a car. Interstate 75 goes through the outer part of center field."
Rossmann is reminded of this because Cinergy Field, opened as Riverfront Stadium in 1970, closed Sunday after the Reds ended their home season with a 4-3 loss to Philadelphia. Cinergy will be imploded in December, and the Reds will move into Great American Ball Park next year. Riverfront, one of the cookie-cutter stadiums of its times with Pittsburgh's Three Rivers and Philadelphia's Veterans Stadium, won't be missed. Three Rivers already is gone, and the Vet will go after next year.
"I know what a lot of fans think and how they'd like to see these stadiums blown up," Phillies manager Larry Bowa said, "but a lot of sentimental things have gone on in both stadiums."
Not, however, like at Crosley Field. Tourists still stop by Phillips Supply to pay homage to Crosley, where the Reds played 4,534 games from 1912-1970.
Cincinnati won the 1919 World Series by taking two games there. Baseball's first night game was held there in 1935. In 1937, the city's worst flood submerged Crosley. In 1940, the Reds beat Detroit 2-1 to win the seventh and decisive game of that World Series.
Visitors to Phillips Supply take in the company's pictures of the old park and sit in the seats left over from Crosley. The seats are outside the front door.
Conversion to parking lots is the popular fate for old ballparks. That's what happened to Chicago's Comiskey Park, as well as Atlanta's Fulton County Stadium, Texas' Arlington Stadium and Milwaukee's County Stadium.
In Atlanta, the base paths are painted into the concrete, and kids run the bases when the parking lot is empty. Part of the outfield wall is still standing in the outfield parking lot of Turner Field.
Kids also run base paths in the lot at County Stadium, but these paths are real ones. The Brewers took up a chunk of the land by building a youth ballpark in the middle of the parking lot.
Some ballparks, such as Seattle's Kingdome and Cleveland Stadium, have been turned into NFL stadiums. Others have turned into everything from churches to hospital emergency rooms.
Pass the plate: The Deliverance Evangelistic Church is where the Philadelphia Phillies played in Shibe Park, also known as Connie Mack Stadium until it closed in 1970. The church's pulpit is at home plate. The church's membership is 6,300, about 2,400 less than the Phillies' average attendance in the final season at Connie Mack.
Maz memories: Home plate from Pittsburgh's Forbes Field is on display at Forbes Quad, a classroom building at the University of Pittsburgh. A flagpole and part of the outfield wall still stand. A plaque is on the site where Bill Mazeroski's homer cleared the fence to win the '60 World Series for the Pirates.
Brave new field: A portion of the right-field pavilion of Braves Field, home of the Boston Braves until 1952, is part of Boston University's Nickerson Field, where Terrier soccer teams play. Campus security occupies the Braves' offices in the building where Babe Ruth signed his last contract.
Polo project: The site of the Polo Grounds in north Harlem is a housing project, but there is no marker. As a pro, Wilt Chamberlain used to drive his Rolls Royce to the playground nearby and play basketball.
Bum deal: The Brooklyn Dodgers' Ebbets Field is an apartment complex. A small inscription on the building pays homage to the ballpark and, to cut down on broken windows, there was a sign that read, "No ball playing."
Smaller version: Sportsman's Park in St. Louis has shrunk since the Cardinals last season there in 1965. The Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club is on the site, and the organization has a youth field with home plate in the right-field area of the old Sportsman's Park.
Fans visit to play catch on the field. "One time a guy with his family came," says executive director Flint Fowler. "It was pouring rain, but he wanted his kids to get out and run the bases, experience history and take in some of the old ballpark. That happens frequently."
Make up your mind: RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., one of the homes to the Senators, went from baseball to football to soccer and, if D.C. gets a team, to baseball again, at least until a new stadium is built.
Mallpark: At the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., home plate of Metropolitan Stadium, first home of the Twins (1961-1981), is marked at Camp Snoopy. And 522 feet away is a stadium seat marking the length of the Met's longest homer, by Harmon Killebrew.
Last call: Seals Stadium, the San Francisco Giants' first West Coast home (1958-59), is the Potero Hills shopping mall. But the ballpark's legacy lives at The Double Play, a bar kitty-cornered across the street. The gold dome from the ballpark's flagpole is on display on the back bar. The bar also has four wooden seats and all kinds of pictures. The back room is made into a replica of Seals, with a green floor and advertising signs that used to be in the ballpark. Giants president Peter Magowan stops by.
Nailed at home: In Seattle, Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse stands on the lot that used to be Sicks Stadium, home to the 1969 Pilots. Just outside the front door is a bronze home plate with a metal statue of a player holding a bat. There's also a display of uniforms and baseballs.
No flowers: Kansas City's Municipal Stadium, home to the A's from 1955-67 and the Royals from 1969-71, was turned into a community flower garden. Now, the flowers are cleared for potential future development.
Transported: Colts Stadium, once home to the Houston Astros (formerly the Houston Colt .45s), was taken down, moved to Tampico, Mexico, and rebuilt for use by amateur leagues.
Olympic dream: Houston's Astrodome, the Eighth Wonder of the World, closed after the 1999 season. It was going to be an indoor track to help the city get the 2012 Olympics. The city lost out. The dome's future is uncertain.
Push two, please: Griffith Stadium, original home of the Senators until the team left Washington, D.C., in 1961, is now Howard University Hospital. Home plate is in the emergency room. First base will be marked with a brass tile in an elevator that goes up to patient rooms. A baseball museum, with oral history, artifacts and photographs, is being planned to go with the hospital museum so visitors can pass time by listening to Senators history.
"We already get a lot of foot traffic for the hospital museum," says the hospital's Bonita Bolden. "I can only imagine what it is going to be like with the baseball museum. There are 10 times more baseball fans. I can't see how it wouldn't be good for the hospital."
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